Chapter 201

Chapter 199 – Hell – 2

ㅡSwish!

“H-hi, Hii?!”

And then, as soon as Kaiquilia turned around, she aimed the Holy Sword at the throat of the Bronze-skinned Woman. The woman, seeing the radiant golden sword pointed at her neck, was startled and raised both hands.

“Explain, Delta.”

Kaiquilia looked at me while keeping the sword aimed at the woman’s throat.

“Why is the Holy Sword reacting to this woman?”

It was just as she said.

The Holy Sword was shining more intensely than usual, albeit slightly.

“……Holy Sword?”

“I did not ask you. I did not allow you to speak either. If you move your tongue or body without permission again, you will bear the consequences alone.”

The Bronze-skinned Woman reacted momentarily at the mention of the Holy Sword, but upon Kaiquilia’s ominous whisper, she obediently shut her mouth and rolled her eyes nervously.

There was no point in dragging this out any longer. Thankfully, I had thought of an explanation beforehand. I hurriedly stepped between the woman and Kaiquilia and pushed against the side of the Holy Sword’s blade with my finger.

Kaiquilia, who was watching me with a blank stare, complied and moved the Holy Sword as I gestured. The tip of the sword that was precisely aimed at the throat shifted into the air.

Of course, my suspicion hadn’t been completely erased. It was just that the sword was lowered a little. If she were to completely dispel her doubts, she would have unsummoned the Holy Sword.

“Are you protecting that woman?”

“Yes.”

“There must be a reason for doing so. Speak. Why should we spare the life of a woman to whom the Holy Sword reacts?”

Kaiquilia, arms crossed beneath her chest, lightly perched her backside on the nearby table and crossed her legs.

Though her attitude was still very domineering, it was a significant improvement that she didn’t act on her whims and listened. A behavior once unimaginable for her.

“Because, this person is different from those the Holy Sword reacts to.”

“Different?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. You must already know, but what kind of beings does the Holy Sword react to?”

Kaiquilia gave me a look that said, “Why are you asking something so obvious?” but she answered anyway.

“Demons. And the fools who believe in such things.”

“Correct. However, this person behind you… What was her name again?”

I turned my head. The woman, still looking panicked, was glancing between me and Kaiquilia before cautiously opening her mouth.

“Margarita. Just call me Margarita.”

“Understood. Ms. Margarita is completely different from demons or devil worshippers. The reason the Holy Sword reacts to Ms. Margarita is simply that she has sustained herself by consuming the corpses of demons.”

She consumed the corpses of demons. Perhaps it was something she desperately didn’t want others to find out. The moment I mentioned it, Margarita flinched, her eyes trembling uncontrollably.

While I felt a bit sorry for revealing her secret, it was much better than trying to lie poorly to Kaiquilia and getting caught. The consequences of that were all too obvious.

“What did you just say? Did the woman truly hear correctly, Delta?”

Kaiquilia’s eyes widened in surprise at that shocking confession.

“How could I possibly lie to Your Majesty? It is the unvarnished truth.”

“…To even think you could put something so disgusting in your mouth.”

Kaiquilia grimaced, but despite her revulsion, she seemed to accept the reason for the Holy Sword’s reaction and unsummoned it. The golden Light Mass in her hand scattered into the air.

A small sigh was heard from behind.

“Wait a moment. But how do you know all this? We just met today!”

As the shock and relief settled, Margarita’s hand desperately grasped my shoulder.

I responded with a laugh, and Kaiquilia clicked her tongue softly and spoke on my behalf.

“Give it up. He is a man even this minister does not fully understand. However, he has never made a wrong choice so far, so it suffices to just trust and follow him.”

Having just heard Kaiquilia’s words, I internally marveled slightly.

To say one can just trust and follow without fully understanding, was a remarkable expression of trust coming from prideful, arrogant, and domineering Kaiquilia. It was hard to believe she would say something like that.

Such words couldn’t come out unless she truly trusted me. I felt quite proud, realizing my past efforts had paid off.

“Well, that doesn’t matter much.”

“If that’s not important, then what is?”

Bolstered by Kaiquilia’s backing, I skillfully tossed aside the question, causing Margarita to pout and mumble.

“What’s important is that Ms. Margarita, you are trapped in hell, and because of that, you have half given up and resorted to consuming demon corpses.”

“……”

“Is my statement wrong?”

Margarita, who had been pondering for a while, seemed to conclude that there was no point in hiding anything anymore since I knew this much and nodded her head.

“You’re right. Just as you said. Yes, I’m trapped here, and I had no choice but to resort to those corpses.”

At last, affirmation escaped Margarita’s lips.

“Since hiding is meaningless now, let me ask directly. How much do you know?”

“All the information I need to know.”

Margarita was a former Holy Knight trapped here for a long time. She probably had an age similar to that of the Eternal Magician in terms of lore.

The reason a mere Holy Knight could live so long was due to the nature of hell. Since they must utilize captured humans for as long as possible, a curse prevents them from aging in hell.

Like the Player, Margarita too fell victim to the summoning of devil worshippers. She had fallen into hell while trying to subjugate them.

While her comrades became demon bio-batteries, Margarita barely managed to survive.

Even though she had escaped, it was impossible for any Holy Knight to dispose of all the demons in hell, and thus in the competition for survival, she turned to sustaining herself by consuming the corpses of defeated demons.

Demons fight a lot among themselves. That’s what the official lore states. Of course, humans take priority, but when human hunting isn’t happening, they resort to cannibalism to make hell more hellish.

Just because there’s a king doesn’t mean they won’t fight. On the contrary, the demon king encourages such chaos and disorder.

“……”

I briefly summarized this to them. Kaiquilia and Margarita listened quietly. The look on their faces was filled with questions like, “How do you know this?”

It didn’t matter much. After all, Kaiquilia was in a mood to let it slide since I could do whatever I wanted, while Margarita would refrain from asking further questions after I had just risked exposing my identity.

Most importantly, the owner of the Holy Sword was confirming my identity. Humans can lie, but the Holy Sword cannot. That’s something a Holy Knight like Margarita knows better than anyone.

“You’ve got quite a stomach. I can’t believe you thought about consuming that.”

Kaiquilia scoffed with her brow heavily knitted.

Honestly, even I found it hard to imagine. In the original work, given such a grim backstory, the character had grown disheveled, with a beard and hair covering his entire face, and his clothes were all ragged, making him appear like a dirty old man.

But here, she looked like a refreshing Latina beauty.

‘…But were we not told we wouldn’t starve here?’

It seemed like they mechanically took care of their meals, but I really didn’t know.

“Therefore, here’s my suggestion, Ms. Margarita.”

If I didn’t move onto the main point soon, I would begin to appear like a crazy person barging into someone else’s house and rummaging through their privacy, so I quickly proceeded to my next words.

“Don’t you want to escape from here?”

At that remark, Margarita’s face lit up.

“Of course I want to escape. Do you think I want to live here, eating demon corpses? Do you think I’d want to exist like this, consuming such disgusting things?”

However, her initially raised head soon drooped helplessly.

“But there’s no way out. No way…”

“Why is there no way? You had it all worked out yourself.”

“……”

Margarita, who seemed momentarily confused by my words, finally looked horrified a few seconds later.

“H-how do you know that…?”

“I’ve verified the theory, gathered the materials, and prepared everything to make it, but I couldn’t find the core materials needed to operate it, so I just left it there. Isn’t that correct?”

“N-no…”

Margarita stammered.

The thing I had just referred to was Margarita’s side quest. Collect all the materials needed to escape. Then she could exit hell.

There was another side quest related to the Holy Kingdom, but that could be dealt with later after escaping from here.

“I will rescue you.”

“…What?”

“We’ll gather all those materials for you. But, since they aren’t one-time use items, you just have to let us use them together later. We need to leave here quickly as well.”

Margarita successfully escapes in the game.

And after escaping, she hands over what she has collected to the player for reuse, so there shouldn’t be a problem with Kaiquilia and me using it.

I originally planned to defeat the final boss and return, but it seemed this could be a faster way back.

Collecting those would not grant the player the ability to use them as they would be utilized for a side quest linked to the Holy Kingdom, meaning they wouldn’t be usable here, which I had briefly misunderstood.

“W-wait, just a moment…”

Margarita seemed very flustered, stuttering as she fumbled for words.

Well, her reaction was entirely understandable. In such a moment, action was required, not words.

“There’s no need to keep talking here. I will demonstrate it directly. Your Majesty?”

“I’m listening.”

“Isn’t what we killed earlier still not enough?”

At my words, Kaiquilia met my gaze with a condescending smile.

“What more is there to say?”